As Nick entered the Bunnyburrow General Store a few steps behind Judy, he couldn't help but notice just how…country it looked.
Now, to be fair, Nick's only real experience with how the other half lived came partly from Judy, but mostly from the old Wild West movies that he liked to watch as a kid. Sure, the Wild West was a way more lawless place that Bunnyburrow would ever hope to be, but he could see at least some similarities.
Anyway, as much as Nick really wanted to dwell on how much this place reminded him of a homelier convenience store, he had a job to do, so after shaking his head to bring himself back to the present, Nick focused his attention on what was in front of him, only to surprisingly find himself already in front of the counter.
Glancing behind him, Nick was shocked to find that he'd somehow avoided crashing into anything during his journey from the front door to the counter. He'd almost expected to knock at least a few jars over with how much his mind was wandering a few minutes ago, but he decided to take it as is, chalking it up to his natural litheness.
"Can I help you with something?" asked the clerk behind the counter, who happened to be a hare a few inches taller than Judy.
He also had on a red flannel shirt and a pair of overalls, which made him look like a stereotypical country bumpkin, but Nick was considerate enough not to point that out aloud.
Digging into his pocket, Nick pulled out his badge and showed it to the clerk.
"Nick Wilde, ZPD. Are you the owner, by any chance?"
"Harry Fluffer, and no, I'm not. The owners are actually my parents."
"Are they anywhere around? My partner and I would like to ask them some questions about what happened last night."
"Afraid not, Mr. Wilde. They were mighty shaken up after that robbery, so I told them to stay home for the day and I'd handle the shop."
"You get asked to man the place a lot?"
"Sometimes. I've kind of wanted to follow in Judy Hopps's footsteps and move to Zootopia. I'm probably not going to go as far as to get into the ZPD, but still, seeing how someone like her can make a name for herself outside of Bunnyburrow was pretty inspiring, if I do say so myself."
Harry quickly fell silent, glancing off into the store behind Nick for a few moments before returning his focus to Nick as he spoke once more.
"Well, until that happens, if they need me to man the fort here, I'm not going to complain."
"That's a pretty good outlook to have. Are your parents alright with this?"
"Well, they're not thrilled about it, but they did say that they weren't going to stop me if I went through with it."
Nick hummed in admiration as he watched Harry gesticulate as he spoke. While he'd seen way more than enough instances of Judy being recognized thanks to what the two of them did with the Bellwether case (frankly, the amount of times they were stopped was starting to get a little grating, especially considering Nick didn't get nearly the amount of credit), he was admittedly a little surprised that her influence has spread as far as the Tri-Burrows.
Then again, the Hopps family was one of the more well-known families in the area, so he could see just how quickly the news can travel.
Pulling himself out of his thoughts, Nick refocused his attention on Harry, only to find that the hare looked a little concerned as he watched the fox in front of him.
"You alright there, officer? I think you kind of zoned out on me for a moment, there."
Nick awkwardly cleared his throat, slightly embarrassed that he let himself get sidetracked so easily.
Unfortunately, before he could actually get moving with the questioning, another pair of long ears went past his line of sight, and after looking to his right, he found Judy standing right next to him, a smile on her face.
"Look who it is! Where've you been, Carrots?"
"Talking to the officers assigned to this store."
"Anything interesting?" asked Nick, his eyebrows rising as his interest was piqued.
"Nope. They just said that the owners were too freaked out to say anything."
"Just like all of the other robberies that Cotton mentioned."
Judy fell silent for a few moments, pondering what exactly she should do next considering their options were limited.
Before she could actually try and figure something out, though, Nick suddenly stepped in, placing his paws on the counter as he addressed the hare.
"Mr. Fluffer, I know that you weren't here when the robbery happened, but is there any chance that you'd be able to answer some questions for us?"
Harry was predictably caught off guard by Nick's question, his eyes widening as he watched Judy and Nick quietly converse before the former handed the latter a pen and notepad.
"Where did you get this? I thought you forgot to bring a pad." he heard Nick whisper.
"The officers had a spare, thankfully."
While Nick was admittedly a little surprised that the officers would be carrying more than one notepad (he couldn't recall ever seeing any of his colleagues carrying extra pads), he decided it was probably best just to take it as a win.
So, after clearing his throat once more, Nick flipped the notepad open to the first page, letting the pen hover over the paper as he spoke up.
"Now, I don't believe that I've got an answer from you yet concerning my last question. Are you going to be alright if we ask you some questions?"
"What? Oh, sure. I don't know how much help I'll be, but I'll give it a shot." said Harry, pulled out of his thoughts after being addressed so suddenly.
"Good." said Judy, stepping in. "Did your parents happen to share anything with you last night or possibly earlier today about what happened with the robbery?"
"Not too much, to be honest. I noticed that something was up with them last night when they came home. I asked them what was going on, and that's when they told me that the store was robbed."
"So, did you call the police?" asked Nick, furiously scribbling notes into his notepad as he spoke.
"Well, I first tried to get them to say if they called the police themselves or not."
"I'm assuming that must have not worked out."
"No, and it's kind of worrying me. It's not like they've completely shut down, but they've been noticeably quieter today."
Judy could hear Nick's scribbling slow down a bit as he glanced up at Harry, giving the hare a sympathetic look.
"I did end up calling the police not too long after, though."
"How'd it go?" asked Judy.
"They said they'd look into it, but they've been so swamped since those robbers came in, they weren't sure how long it was going to take. Thank god they came in this morning. Otherwise, I don't know what I'd do!"
"Calm down, sir. We're doing the best we can to figure out who's been doing all of this." said Judy, her officer's instincts kicking in when she saw just how worked up Mr. Fluffer was getting.
Thankfully, while it did take a few moments to do so, Harry was able to calm himself down after taking a few deep breaths.
"Sorry. I'm just a little freaked out right now. I mean, I've been hearing about this string of robberies going on in this town for a while now, and frankly I didn't think we'd end up being one of the victims."
"We understand completely, Mr. Fluffer. Now, is there anything else you can think of about your parents? Even the smallest detail will help us greatly."
Nick was only really saying that to goad Harry into giving them anything that they could use for the case, considering even he was unsure about whether the kind of details he was talking about would work judging by the type of case they were dealing with.
Surprisingly, though, after a few seconds where Harry seemed lost in thought, his expression brightened as it appeared that he had successfully remembered something.
"Oh wait! I almost forgot!"
Judy's ears quickly perked up after this seemingly unlikely scenario turned out to be fruitful. As she listened intently to what Harry was about to say, she could see that Nick was also prepared, pen to paper as he was ready to jot down this new information.
"While I was trying to get them to tell me what happened, there were these three words that I kept hearing every time I asked something. They'll kill us…they'll kill us…I didn't think it was that important at first, but now that you guys are talking about any kind of detail being helpful, I thought I'd mention it."
"Mr. Fluffer, this is way more important than you think it is. Why didn't you share it with the officers who were in here before us?" asked Judy, her tone becoming much more frantic now that she realized that they've got an important lead.
"I've only just remembered, okay? I've been here since I opened this morning trying to keep my mind off of what's going on with my parents, and now you two and those other officers are just bringing this all back! I thought the police was supposed to keep us calm, not stress us out!"
Harry was clearly starting to become agitated, which forced the two of them to take action before things got worse.
"Mr. Fluffer, please calm down. We're only trying to help." said Nick.
"Yeah? Well it looks like you're accusing me of hiding information." said Harry, fuming.
"Look…" started Judy, sighing heavily before continuing on. "I was out of line with that question, and I'm sorry that it had to go this far."
Judy fell silent, waiting to see if her apology would defuse the situation.
At first, it seemed like Harry wasn't going to fall for it so easily, as his expression only changed minutely. However, after what felt like forever, she could hear the hare letting out air through his nostrils as he closed his eyes for a few moments.
"Alright. I believe you. Thank you for apologizing."
"You're welcome."
"Before we go, is there anything else that you'd like to share with us?" asked Nick, keeping his tone measured so as not to anger the still stressed out hare.
Thankfully, even though Harry didn't answer (instead replying with a simple shake of his head), his expression did not get any more heated, which both Nick and Judy were very glad to see happen.
"Listen, I'm not going to stop you if you want to stay here, but personally I'd suggest closing up the shop for the day and heading home. I'm sure your parents need the company judging by what you were saying they were acting like."
Nick watched Harry ponder his suggestion, unsure as to whether he would actually go through with it.
"I'm good, actually. To be honest, I kind of need the time away. I love them and all, but dealing with what happened has been stressing me out way too much."
"Okay, that's fair." said Nick, shrugging.
After closing the notebook, Nick stuck the pen through the wire binding the paper together, threading the clip on the outside to prevent it from falling out.
"If you have anything else that you happen to remember, please don't hesitate to either come to us or notify the police station, Mr. Fluffer. We'll only be here for the rest of the week, but the other officers will be available anytime."
"You're only here for the rest of the week?" asked Harry. "Why's that?"
"We're, uh…technically supposed to be on vacation from Precinct One." said Nick. "We're just helping with this on an unofficial basis."
"Well, it's good to see officers taking the initiative, I suppose."
The conversation over, Nick quickly reached across the counter with his paw, shaking Harry's paw after the hare realized what he was doing.
"Anyway, we'd like to thank you for taking the time for answering our questions, Mr. Fluffer." said Nick as Harry shook paws with Judy.
"You're welcome Officer Wilde…Officer Hopps."
Nick and Judy quickly began making their way over to the door, ready to get a move on with the rest of the interviews. After one final exchange of goodbyes, they finally exited the general store and headed back into town.
As they headed down the steps and back on to the dirt roads that lined the main part of Bunnyburrow, Nick looked down to where Judy was and noticed that she looked to be lost in thought.
"Something on your mind, Fluff?"
"Hm?"
Judy looked over in surprise, not expecting to be pulled out of her thoughts so roughly.
"You looked pretty zoned out there."
"Oh, um…I've just been thinking about what Harry said about what his parents were saying."
"You mean 'They'll kill us', right?"
"Yeah! I mean, it's kind of strange, isn't it? We've seen our fair share of robberies in the last six months, and I don't recall ever hearing any of the culprits mention anything like that."
"Well, to be fair, if these guys were brazen enough to knock off fifteen or so stores in the span of weeks, I can imagine that something like that would come up."
"Why would they do that, though? Don't you think just getting the money would be enough?"
"Most likely it's just an intimidation tactic. Travis did say that the perp who knocked off the general store had a gun, right?"
"Yeah, but that doesn't explain why what happened to the owners was happening to the owners of all of the other stores."
Nick opened his muzzle to reply, but it quickly shut when something hit him.
"You're right. That is strange. The sheriff did mention that there were no guns involved in any of the other incidents."
"I think we'd better get to interviewing the rest of the victims. I really want to see if they know anything about what Harry said."
"Agreed. I think we've got something going, Carrots."
Nick gave Judy an eager smile, knowing that they've seemingly broken through on this case.
"Wow, look at you." commented Judy, having noticed the look on Nick's muzzle. "Just yesterday you wanted nothing to do with this, and now you're all in."
Nick was admittedly a little taken aback by her assessment, but he decided that it was best just to take it as a compliment, so after recovering from his stunned state, he adopted his normal half-lidded stare as he shrugged.
"I guess you must be rubbing off on me, Fluff. Don't expect me to start being a goody two-shoes, though. I'd need a lot more coddling for that to happen."
Nick's joke thankfully earned a giggle from his counterpart, and he quickly acknowledged the reaction with a playful bow.
"Thank you, I'll be here all week."
With the mood now noticeably brighter, Nick and Judy began making their way over to the first store on the list that Sheriff Cotton gave them, ready to get started on their next round of interviews.
